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Topic: Abarth International (Read 3329 times)

It was the late sixties when my pal George and his gal Linda went tothe auto show at the New York Coliseum. At that time my friends andI were driving Mini Coopers, Renualts and a whole variety of Fiats.We could generally pick them up for very little money. I preferredthe Fiat 600 sedan and had one after another in those days. Getting back to the story, George spotted the just imported 1968Siata Spring and Linda loved it. The Spring looked something like an early fifties MG, but even cuter. It had Borrani wire wheels, a fold downwindshield and a price tag of $1,995. The Siata embodied the spirit of freedom that the sixties were known for, and was the right price. Therewere two on display at the show. A red model with black fenders andGeorge's favorite which was yellow with a black interior. Since theSiata Spring was based on a Fiat 850 sedan undercarriage it was alsofamiliar to him mechanically. The next step was to find out more. A few days later he gave me a call and we were on our way to the importer, Abarth International in Newark, New Jersey. We rounded thecorner on Poineer Street and saw number 83 was a small warehouse space with a lone garage door. We entered to find it was a very modestoperation. The owners were Mr. and Mrs. Herman and the manager wasa fellow named Joe Wells, whom I happened to know. Joe had owned aslot car race place in my town a few years earlier and I was a regular. Their secretary and chauffeur rounded out the Abarth Sales Corp. team. We looked over all the yellow, red, white and green Siatas. George stillpreferred the yellow model. They struck a deal and George not only hadhis car, but they also hired him as parts manager. How's that for reallyschmoozing into a job. Eventually his brother Stephen and our neighborCharlie would also work there as prep men. The final piece in the puzzlewas the mechanic they needed. By chance, Giovanni Ciavarro stopped inone day because he had seen the Abarth sign. Johnny, as we called him, was a master mechanic specializing in Italian cars. He had just arrived in the U.S. from Italy and was looking for a job. They hired him on the spot. Abarth International imported many interesting cars other than theSiata Spring. The OTAS Tigre (which Vickie Herman named) was anotherspecialty sportscar based on the Fiat 850 chasis that was brought into this country in small numbers. They would also import singular cars onorder. One customer had an Abarth 695 SS (based on the Fiat 500 body)brought over from Italy. George eventually bought this car too. And thesurprising thing is, he used this sophisticated racing car as his dailytransportation. Let's just say he could get to work very fast. Since this was a small enterprise, it was a very casual place. Friends and interested parties would drop by to see what the latest cars were. One timeSenor Ambrosini (designer of the Spring) stopped in. He said he designedit for the young people and then got upset when he saw George's Siatasporting oversized Abarth wheels and tires. The practice of fitting theSprings with non original design parts to pass inspection was ongoing.An example was using larger American headlights to replace the originals. Overall the Abarth International experience was a great one. The demiseof the company came when Siatas were discontinued and Mr. Herman died.His wife carried on for a time, but with new government restrictions and aproblem of dealing with Abarth in Italy, the end came too soon.